nabi kys

also ANY scene and interaction from the time the Singing Old guy appears is just a waste of time. a total SKIP and u miss zero percent of the plot. He legit just sings in all his scenes and is hella annoying. Generally that family (notEunBin lead , and her parents) is really bad written. Zero depth in characters. Zero interest.

BTW at episode 45 now, it seems that the focus has strongly shifted on the Inheritance-Abduction-Chairwoman situation. Still the initial comment about the Evil ML stands and he's still hateful as ever, a PLUS is that you can completely skip his scenes since they are mostly interactions at the Cafe with the NotEunBin Lead, who as i mentioned is a total pushover and for some reason we waste screentime on her foolish shallow feelings towards the trashML

Also the other female lead.(not Eun Bin). Biggest pushover i've ever seen.
Guy literally ruins her family completely for 20+ episodes and she keeps loving him, talking to him, appearing in front of him, taking care of him when drunk etc.
Poor writing.

on episode 41 out of 50 right now. all i can say is this trash Male Lead(not Lee Tae Hwan) is the worst and evilest character i've ever seen. (watched more than 800 tv series so far).
There is nothing in the world , not even an extra 1000episodes that can redeem his character. Absolutely no way for him to be forgiven by anyone at all.
I don't understand this drama's rating, even the most unbothered person in the world will have their blood boiling with this character.
Using all the cliche plot points and all the evil and scheming acts was not enough for the writers. It really makes the drama unwatchable.
Also because of this one character you can not appreciate ANY other character at all. Not the love story between the other Leads, not any acting from the actors, not any other relationship be it motherly or other.
Even the inheritance plot, and the abduction and all that go unnoticed because of how much overshadowing his evilness is.
Currently , a generous 4/10.
Even if only good things and generally nice feelings come out of the rest 9 episodes there is no way this drama can go above 5.5 or mayyyybe 6/10 thats how irredimable he is.

you know when picking flaws to make some characters annoying or hateful etc, you (as writers) should pick one or two flaws , making 6( YES SIX ) whole characters with more than two flaws that are just UNBEARABLE to watch is just playing with the viewers' nerves.
Honestly i hope no one stoops so low in their drama-watching period of their life to reach the point of thinking this drama might be worth a watch. IT IS TERRIBLE.
If you are a die hard fan of Eun Bin or one of the two Male leads then idk go for it and enjoy drooling over your idol bias' screentime. I don't see any other reason to watch it. Oh maybe if you did something really bad or unfair in your life and you are a strong believer in KARMA then yes, watch it as a self torture method to try balance your karma or smth idk.
I hope in the future producers and channels show this drama as an example to AVOID when investing in family dramas.
YIKES.

Masterpiece. Ending could have been handled a bit better but there were too many loose ends and character to get closure so to do it in a predecided manner of 16 episodes was a real hassle.
Korean crime genre shines once again.

nahhh last 4-5 episodes really underperform.
No plot point so far has an impact. Mountain spirit, or other paranormal things, Lead couple antagonists etc add nothing to the story and are basically absent later on,
Also it is not disney, with the power of love and humanity we are supposed to keep going for the last 4 episodes with NO interesting events happening.
Also if you want to make a difference at least make the ML drastically change his character/emotions. He was cold and emotionless throughout but we said yeh ok he is not a human so its fine. But if the last 4+ hrs are so uninteresting and the Chemistry between the leads are still stagnant then nah..

i'd say of the Chinese, Korean and Thai version that i've watched , Thai is the weakest of the 3.
Especially if you watch it after the others so you know what to expect and at times you are slightly disappointed of how Thai version depicts things
It's not bad though.

a literal yikes old lady

well i'd say the ones you mentioned are more youth-centered romance than this one. This is a drama that deals with romantic relationships as well as friendships at the age of around 30. Each character already has a backstory (for example FL's best friend with her family etc).
You could say it's more mature, where people mind their feelings but also how these feelings will affect their surroundings, we see Second Male Lead really suppressing his love and sacrificing his 'normal' life out of fame, just to make FL's love stay in the country and succeed in his task. While on the dramas you mentioned it's more of high school romance with petty revenges and rich spoiled kids.
All in all it was a good drama and i disagree with people slandering SFL, because the way writers handled her character and how remorseful she was for loving ML and potentially ruining her relationship with her best friend, made her more realistic, and not an ANTAGONISTIC character.
I'd say it's an 8/10 for romance genre.

many dramas have a problem spreading the good and bad moments evenly and feel too rushed to the point that happy endings happen in the last 10 minutes of last episode or so.
Here we have a completely different occasion, this drama could very well be 24 episodes and leave you with the same feelings. It doesn't become draggy or boring (i mean the 'extra' 7 episodes).
You basically have a very long happy ending , spanning almost 10 episodes or so.
There are no second lead antagonists, plotting and ruining Lead Couple's lives, so it is not completely justified that it takes so many episode for the drama to finish.
If you are a fan of any actor here or just want a nice love story, with good enough chemistry(nothing extreme but definitely not bad), then the ~25 hrs of watchtime will feel ok.

Summary: first 20 episodes could have been way more compact, basically the part where they get together couldve come earlier AND the over explaining and long scenes of ML's job could be cut down to half. Then from 21 to 31 episode it could have also been more compact since we just have a stable love relationship that spans a couple of years with no major events or obstacles. And there is no big plot twist or anything where you could say that the episodes evenly split.

All in all a 7.5/10 for romance genre, 8.5/10 for me since im Dilraba's fan.

i think i've said it in every version that this happens but the female antagonist doesn't deserve a happy ending, finding her brother and all that. She literally caused a baby to die just because she was jealous and petty. Lying all the time. I understand evil characters have to be there to put obstacles and make the story interesting or keep it going, but this is over the top. It just makes our blood boil and makes us hate the story even more. Yea i know love always wins in the end blablabla, we already know that happy ending is gonna exist in this genre even before we start watching, thats why antagonists and sudden events make these dramas spicy and watchable otherwise it would be just pure romance/melo lovestory for 16 episodes BUT here this has been exceeded .
It makes me not want to watch any drama that the female antagonist stars in at all.
Just disgusting.
Also, there are better adaptations of this story for sure. i'd say the Taiwanese or Thai (don't remember exactly and am too mad to rewatch right now) is definitely better. The chinese version as well.
An NO it's not revenge enough that the female antagonist 'loses her lover' or whatever. If she was just plotting and making FL's life difficult i'd be fine with her having a good ending by finding her long lost brother but as i said above it's unacceptable here.

it's bad, it's a mess, it's all over the place.
Well that's what happens when writers try to merge the 3 most cliche and replayed storylines in romance/drama genre all together.
It's a blended mix of 3 big plot arches that are also uninteresting. The evil character are not evil enough so it always shifts to the next one, until the last most RANDOM evil character comes and makes it even more baffling and weird.
Honestly the chemistry of the lead couple is nothing extreme. It's obvious that they are just acting and doing their job so it really won't hook you or keep you going for 50 yes FIFTY episodes.
Really nothing thrilling happens to make you say 'oh ok i'll invest 40+ hours on this'.
There are at least 4-5 characters that get screen time and are literally useless and add nothing to the plot. If the point was to reach 50 episodes for whatever reason , then yes adding random characters and kicking them as you wish, while also changing the big plot line many times then ok you did it!
Honestly if it was the original plot that is generally described in the summary and it stopped there, making a 24 episode drama then i could rate it decently. But now it's a hard 5.5/10.
If you are fan of any of the actors maybe you would rate it higher but truthfully it lacks in all aspects.
Oh also music department must have been the rookiest rookie of them all. Random music choices in the most unfit parts of episodes, and the song selection was disgusting. Shifting your focus and really killing the moment.
Disappointed .

veeeeeery slow progress. Should have been 24 or even less episodes. Even the evil schemes from the many antagonists evolve slowly..
Also the family of FL is just disgusting. They add nothing to the plot and just are obnoxious added third characters, really no point even writing+casting them. The evil element is already there in 3 or even 4 other characters that started from the beginning so really the family is unnecessary wasted screen time.
Chemistry of Lead couple is not there. Acting of ML is really wooden.
Generally no character has a very interesting story/charisma/acting so it's really painful to watch till the end.
A 6/10 in this genre. maybe if you are a fan of some actor here it can be 7/10 but really impossible to value it more.
Also the plot generally is not anything new in this type of dramas so there are really a lot better alternatives. It's not bad per se but it definitely isn't worth investing ~25 hours on it.

what a beautiful dark journey this is !!
just one of those masterpieces you see rarely.
I binge-watched it as the third in a row drama in 2 days (Extraordinary attorney Woo, Twenty five twenty one, were the other ones) and i have never watched so much talent and spot on writing in a row.
I i think it's on the list of those dark masterpieces that top the Kdramaland.
Suspicious Housekeeper, Hotel del Luna etc vibes. Just wow.

side note: don't go in expecting heavy romance or extremely romantic scenes. Obviously since it includes school age and afterwards there wouldn't be many BUT if you follow the flow of the drama you can really feel the buildup of emotions in all characters. Not just romantic emotions of course. Strong friendships, rekindling of family connections and all that. It feels like watching a 30-episode series. Condensed and punching. RESPECT.

im binge-watching it pulling an all-nighter..
honestly just WOW.
The story is so inclusive. So diverse. So proportionally spread and so evenly focused.
You see all kinds of characters evolving and telling their story( from Leads to third/fourth level characters..)
The story includes love, sportsmanship, friendship, reality, struggle, betrayal, regret, community.. Just wow.
In 16 episodes to be able to touch all these matters and dig into them not just briefly include them is just insane. Needs a ton of skill writing and producing it. Each episode has to provide something in the bigger plot and a LOT in the smaller plot parts that it includes.
The fashion/styling department was also felt. Apart from the school scenes where of course it's standard(even though you could still see the dress discrepancy between the athletes and cool kids etc), all styling choices made throughout were very spot on. Nothing extravagant or fancy where it was not needed. I rarely comment on clothing by the way. this goes to show what a job they did.
Only the music was mediocre in my opinion. Ok ambient kinda romantic music in scenes where it was obvious is fine. We see that all the time and we expect it. But in more dramatic or pre-dramatic(before fencing matches or when character was getting hyped up for something) the music was kinda meh. At least there were no random music inputs or mistakes that ruin your focus and all that .
10/10 definitely. And imagine that i binge-watched Extraordinary attorney Woo in the morning and then started this. Non-stop back to back masterpieces just wow.

its been 3 months since i watched it so i dont remember the exact episode BUT because of the taste switch that happens they start being/living together in the first few episodes and after a few more they stop being annoyed by one another and the affection builds up.

honestly a masterpiece. it's just one of those dramas that don't really have a genre and you can't group them with others.
Unique concept and great execution. Glad i saw a few actors play different type of roles than their previous works.
It's in the top priority to watch when introducing someone to Kdramas in my opinion.
Let's wait for season 2 now!

idk i watched it on mydramalist, its also on kissasian proxies i guess. but my dramalist works fine

just not getting what she(female antagonist) wanted is not a revenge after all she did to FL.
FL being not good or being shy etc. does not justify the treatment she gets, and i don't care how many episodes the ML tried to correct his wrongdoings(it's not as many episodes as you say btw) because the whole point of reviewing a drama is the feeling escalation you feel with each step of it. Waiting more than half of the episodes to start seeing positive things or any sort of improvement is just DISPROPORTIONATE, i think writers did not respect the hours of watchtime we spend until that point. Ofcourse it had a good ending no one expects the opposite, but using that as a point to justify one of the things i initially commented on is wrong( if that's the case let's just not watch ANY drama of this genre at all since we know they all end well)..
btw even her own family treats her like trash. YES being one against the world works in some stories and in some Lead characters but up to a point, while here it's just non stop bullying for A LOT of episodes (yes i know her mother regrets it and most things are a misunderstanding).
-My overall comment is even if the antagonists or ALL characters are so bad towards the Lead (i've seen it happen in dramas i enjoyed a lot) , the time/episodes of the big events/misunderstanding/turnpoints were handled poorly because its 18 hours of watchtime and there comes a point where you can't stand it even if it becomes better.
There are dramas that start the same or even worse but early on the Lead gets an ally (either of the previously enemies OR one of her friends OR a second-lover lead) and it becomes bearable as ML/FL slowly get their misunderstandings straight.
There are dramas where the evil characters are evil till the end(like rich grandma or chairman or exlover of Lead role) BUT the overall opinion of the characters are not against ML/FL so it still works.
~what im saying is evil characters' screentime shouldn't determine the outcome and overall vibe of the drama.
i don't recommend people to watch this drama except if they are fans of some actor/actress in it, but you know.. ITS JUST MY OPINION.